#5024 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Pacific Purple Sea Urchin
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The purple sea urchin , Strongylocentrotus purpuratus , lives along the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean extending from Ensenada, Mexico to British Columbia, Canada. This sea urchin species is deep purple in color, eggs are orange when secreted in water, and lives in lower inter-tidal and nearshore sub-tidal communities. January, February, and March function as the typical active reproductive months for the species. Sexual maturity is reached around two years.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 20,554 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by William Stimpson in 1857 (169 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Pacific Purple Sea Urchin
- scientific name
- Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
- class
- Echinoidea
- order
- Camarodonta
- family
- Strongylocentrotidae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 20,554
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1857 by William Stimpson
relatives· Strongylocentrotidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 48035, Wikidata Q1936405, GBIF 2278852, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.